MakerBottable Prosthetics?
Kevin Connolly writes about Open Prosthetics over on Boingboing. He points the way to the Open Prosthetics Project. This is a really cool project that is asking for help to improve and innovate prosthetics!
The most MakerBottable prosthetic appears to be the Trautman Hook and the project has already created files using Alibre and made them available for download. Getting them made in metal would cost between $435 and $7213 depending on the process you use to get them made out of metal, but the cost will be less than a dollar in plastic for anyone who makes them on a MakerBot. Is plastic a viable option? Can MakerBotted plastic be cast in metal? These are frontiers waiting for MakerBot Operators to explore and share back to the prosthetics ning community that the open prosthetics project has set up. They’ve also set up a wiki for documentation of the Trautman Hook.
The designs on the site are released into the public domain which is very cool. The project organizers encourage any derivative works. MakerBot Operators are fearless digital designers that are not afraid to try things out and iterate a design and it seems like this may be a great place for operators to print things and support innovation in the prosthetics space.
I’ve downloaded their public domain Trautman Hook files and uploaded them to Thingiverse to make it easy for folks to share their copies and derivatives. I take no ownership of the files but I am publishing them on Thingiverse to make it easier for folks to make derivatives and track those derivatives. The public domain license is there and so you can go downoad them, check them out and modify them to be easily MakerBottable. Share pictures of your copies and upload your derivative files if you make them!
What will be the challenges to printing prosthetics? What is the best way to work together to support open prosthetic development? We can only find out if we try!
Download, Print, Assemble, Innovate and Share!
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8 Comments so far
Ben Rockhold
Awesome!
I wrote a paper for my english class about prosthetics a month ago, and as I was working on my CupCakeStrap the two thoughts underwent a memetic collision – it’s awesome that someone else beat me to writing a blog post about it.
Bre Pettis
Ben, Great! If you write a blogpost about it, feel free to post a link in the comments here!
metis
the easy way to cast from CNC plastic is to print a negative mold, fill it with wax or a foam, and then use the cast item for a lost wax/foam metal casting. you cold try to burn out the plastic, but you’d want to do a very porous model, i’m not sure how well abs will burn out, another plastic might burn out better.
Rashad Glover
This why I bought my Makerbot. Thank you for posting this link. I bought my Makerbot so I could make things for myself and disabled people. I had no idea there was a whole community of people out doing this already. I also just paid almost $1200 for Alibre and some of it plugins the same I day I bought my Makerbot. Thank you Bre! I also just completed my bot here it is with cool white LEDs mounted inside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvdmOcvy_co&feature=player_embedded
3D Printing Helps Fuel Open Source Prosthetics Project - PSFK
[...] Makerbot Industries Blog [...]
Nathan
Can the the Makerbot print in Wax???
Larry James
Makerbot ABS printed parts can be investment cast in bronze pretty easily. My Snowflake design was dipped in hot wax to fill in any imperfections, then coated in ceramic, fired, then cast in bronze.
Open Prosthetics on Thingiverse « The tech telecom and all
[...] at Makerbot Industries, Bre Petis has taken an interest in using a Makerbot to print designs from the Open Prosthetics Project. He has uploaded one device to Thingiverse, the Trautman Hook, [...]